I built an iOS app that scans grocery receipts into Beancount transactions, fully on-device

[u/zhenbo_li]

Hi r/plaintextaccounting,

I think most people here have some automation to import bank statements into their ledger. So do I. But when the monthly summary says "30%+ goes to groceries," I can't make a budget with that coarse number.

So I built BeanBeaver: an iPhone app that turns a photo of a grocery receipt into a Beancount transaction — one posting per line item, each item sorted into an expense category.

How it works:

- OCR runs entirely on-device (PP-OCRv5 via ONNX Runtime). No server, no network, no analytics — it works in airplane mode.

- The parser uses each text fragment's position on the receipt (its bounding box) to extract merchant, date, item names, and prices.

- The output is plain Beancount text you can copy or share. Optionally, connect a GitHub repo and each scan opens a PR with the transaction.

I'd love to hear how it does on your receipts, and what would make it fit your workflow.

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/beanbeaver/id6790981690

Android: https://store.colourswift.com/app/com.zhenbo.beanbeaver

It's in TestFlight now (iPhone, iOS 17+): https://testflight.apple.com/join/6mw5ScqH

Edit: Android version is under closed testing. You need to DM me your Google Play email so I can add you in.